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ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly will meet on Thursday to begin a new
parliamentary year that is billed to restore parliament’s lost authority without
much delay.
Formation of an all-parties committee to propose constitutional amendments to
empower parliament will be the most important task for the session, which
follows easing of political tensions after a month of turmoil but comes amid an
unceasing security threat from terrorists seeking to destroy the country’s
political and social systems.
However, the opening sitting, due at 4pm, will adjourn without conducting any
business to mourn the recent death of house member Mir Taj Mohammad Khan Jamali
of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from Balochistan.
The new session comes 12 days after President Asif Ali Zarari told a joint
sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate that there should be ‘no more
delay’ in constituting the all-parties committee and bringing the constitutional
amendments in light of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by the leaders of
the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) in 2006.
National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza, tasked by the president in his March 12
address to form the committee, has already asked parliamentary groups to name
their representatives, a parliamentary sources said.
But there was no immediate official word about how soon she will constitute the
committee, whose membership is expected to come from both houses of parliament.
But political sources said any delay would only renew suspicions about the
government’s sincerity to implement the CoD, which seeks to clip the
presidency’s controversial powers usurped by former military president Pervez
Musharraf to dissolve the National Assembly and appoint armed forces chiefs,
provincial governors and the Chief Election Commissioner and give them back to
the prime minister as required by a genuine parliamentary system of government
and enshrined in the original 1973 constitution.
While the PML-N, as the main opposition party, has vowed to press for a speedy
march towards these and other amendments proposed by the CoD, it would be an
opportunity for the government and the PPP to repair the big damage they
suffered from the previous delay in bringing the constitutional amendments and
restoring superior court judges sacked by General Musharraf under his
controversial Nov 3, 2007 emergency proclamation.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who played a major role in the recent
reconciliation between the PPP and the PML-N after their confrontation over the
judges’ issue and imposition of governor’s rule in the Punjab province, has
indicated in some his remarks to journalists that a constitutional amendment
bill could come in the new session.
And President Zardari said in his speech there should be ‘no more delay’ after
six months were lost since he first proposed the parliamentary committee to
‘revisit’ the constitution’s controversial 17th Amendment and article 58 (2)
(b).
Given the home work already done by the main parties, there will be sufficient
enough time for the amendment bill to take shape before the National Assembly
session is due to conclude on April 24.
A Senate session, called to commence on March 17, will also be at hand if that
bill is ready by then to be passed by the required two-thirds majority of each
house – an apparently easy target in view of a publicly announced willingness of
most parties in parliament.
Other issues likely to produce heated debates will include the country’s
security situation in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in the North West
Frontier and Punjab provinces, renewed terror threats from Taliban commanders
like Baitullah Mahsud and the fate of the NWFP government’s peace deal with
militants in Swat, which authorities claim to be the right step in the given
situation but which is denounced by critics and rights groups as only a
surrender to the power of the gun that will encourage more terrorism.
The government also has to bring some more bills to compensate for its poor
legislative record of only three bills passed in the previous parliamentary
year, which was otherwise marked by the election of President Zardari and Prime
Minister Gilani with huge majorities and of Dr Fehmida Mirza as first woman
speaker of the National Assembly as well as lengthy debates on important issues
such as national security, foreign policy and an economic crisis. |
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